For more than a decade, Hugh Campbell commuted on the London Underground from a mid-sized terraced house in Islington to the Mayfair office of GP Bullhound, the boutique investment bank he helped co-found.

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His house and his journey to work are now profoundly different. His house in Alderley Edge, at the heart of what is known as the Golden Triangle of villages just outside Manchester, spans 6,500 square feet, over three times bigger than where he lived in London. Campbell walks his three kids, nine, seven and five, to school every morning, then drives the 13 miles to work in central Manchester.

The catalyst for change was his firm’s decision to open an office in Manchester. Campbell, a native of the region, jumped at the opportunity to head home and lead the initiative.

At first glance, such a career change can easily be stereotyped. Supposedly, the bright lights and big deals are in London: knowing glances might be exchanged about a banker who opts for the quieter life of the provinces, even if it does come with a large garden, big house and good schools. The conventional wisdom is that London is where investment banking lives and dies, and if you want to make serious money, this is where you need to be.

That is not entirely correct. At GP Bullhound, young bankers can expect to be paid the same whether they work in London or Manchester.

The same applies to the Rothschild regional office, based in the old Manchester home of the Bank of England, which employs around 30 people. According to one person familiar with the firm’s pay structure, junior bankers working in Manchester are paid no less than in London.

Given the surreal property prices in London, a comparable pay packet has obvious advantages in Manchester. A junior investment banker at Rothschild could expect to be paid around £60,000, according to research from Financial News. A top-of-the-range flat in Manchester city centre costs £450,000. After a few years saving your bonus, you could expect to buy a flat a few minutes’ walk from work.

Compare that to London, where the average property price passed £450,000 earlier this year, according to the Sequence National Housing Market Index. That will get you a small flat in Ealing, one hour from the heart of London’s financial district. If you want to live within walking distance of work, you should expect to shell out millions.

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Unsurprisingly, young bankers who find they have greater purchasing power in Manchester have been drawn to Spinningfields – the city’s financial district. Developed in the 2000s, it is filled with glass towers, designer outlets, upmarket bars and the ubiquitous Pret A Manger. Apart from scale, the area is not too dissimilar to Canary Wharf.

Barclays, Baker Tilly, BNY Mellon, Deloitte and Royal Bank of Scotland are among the familiar financial names that call Spinningfields home. Investment banking boutiques such as Zeus Capital, Rothschild and now GP Bullhound are based within a stone’s throw. Zeus Capital’s regional team numbers 15, and Deloitte’s regional corporate finance team almost 20.

Aziz Ul-Haq, partner at Deloitte’s corporate finance team in Manchester, said: “We are seeing more CVs from London, from the larger firms. People now have a choice. You can have a corporate finance career without having to go to London.”

Andrew Thomas, a partner and head of Rothschild’s Manchester office, added: “An increasing number of banking hopefuls are electing to choose the regional offices, and looking at them alongside London.”
Campbell, who also employs a brace of junior bankers in Manchester, said: “A lot of people want to now stay in the north-west.”

So what, the London banker might cry. The deals, and therefore the excitement, is down south. But over the past 12 months, Manchester-based corporate advisory firms have been riding on a wave of initial public offerings. Online retailer boohoo, electrical goods firm AO World, and Conviviality Retail, owner of Bargain Booze off-licences, all based in the north-west, have listed over the past 12 months.

For juniors working in the region, the volume of deals is providing an element of excitement unavailable down south. Junior bankers at large banks in London can expect to work long hours crunching numbers and crafting pitch books while their superiors meet the clients and press the flesh.

Deloitte’s Ul-Haq said: “Here, the younger team do get deal exposure. They quickly become an experienced team exposed to transactions.”

Jonathan Sharp, 26, qualified as a chartered accountant with Deloitte in 2013 and joined Zeus Capital at the beginning of this year. A keen triathlete, he recently bought his first house a 40-minute drive outside Manchester.

When asked why he didn’t fancy working for a large firm in London, he said he “didn’t want to be in an organisation where there are 10,000 people”. He added that he had already gained deal experience, meeting finance directors and chief executives alongside his more senior colleagues. “I wouldn’t be able to do this in the City,” he added.

But it is not all glamour. While those in London – if they make the grade – can eventually expect to jet round the world chasing clients, in Manchester, winning business can involve trips down the M5 or along the M62.

Headhunters also warn that a move away from London, unless properly managed, could leave a banker cut off from the capital.

Stéphane Rambosson, a managing partner of City recruitment firm Veni Partners, said: “A move ‘to the provinces’, such as to Manchester, should only be considered if the role offers some national scope and enables [you] to keep connected to London networks, if one is to envisage a return to the capital.”

So despite Manchester’s attractions, it is probably not about to become a major investment banking hub. A meeting at the regional office of wealth manager Brewin Dolphin failed to reveal a big uptick in bankers wanting to open savings accounts, and a pop survey of estate agents failed to uncover bankers snapping up the desirable properties.

Mohammad Azul, a taxi driver waiting on the rank at Manchester’s central railway station, said he took around five bankers a day to and from the station. Had this changed? Not much. He hoped more would come, but wouldn’t be drawn as to why. Presumably they tip well.

This article was first published in the print edition of Financial News dated July 21, 2014